Resistance and Rescue

Warsaw Uprising
  • Where is it located ?

  • It is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River
    Map of Warsaw,Poland
    Map of Warsaw,Poland
  • What was the Warsaw Uprising ?
  • The Warsaw Uprising was a war for Warsaw, the Polish were fighting the Nazi to gain control of Warsaw. The war began on August 1, 1944. The war was supposed to last only a few days but ended up lasting 63 days. It ended on October 2, 1944 when the Polish surrendered.

What Happened during the War

W-Hour

W-hour which stands for wybuch which stands for "explosion". This was intended to mark the start of the uprising. Which ended up being a mistake because in broad daylight they are subjected to the machine gun fire of the German soldiers.

Polish preparing for W-Hour
Polish preparing for W-Hour



" The first days of the Uprising were successful, and we were given hope. Free Warsaw!"
--- SYLWESTER BRAUN 'KRIS', prolific photographer of the Warsaw Uprising.



Wola massacre

The Wola Massacre was on August 5th and was when German
regiments began carrying out Heinrich Himmler's orders to shoot
the inhabitants regardless of age or gender and burning their bodies. Estimates of civilians killed in Wola and Ochota range from 20,000 to 50,000 on 1 day.
Civilians Murdered during the Wola Massacre
Civilians Murdered during the Wola Massacre


Polish Media

The polish media happened before uprising in the bureau of information and propaganda of the home army. This was lead by Antoni Bohdziewicz. He made this group with three newsreels and 30,000 meters of film tape documenting the struggles of this event. The first newsreel appeared in August 13th in the Palladium cinema. With more films the media become more popular with dozens of newpapers appearing from the first day if the uprising. They had two main newpapers one was run by the goverment Rzeczpospolita Polska and the military Biuletyn Informacyjny, also there were several more newspaper and magazines. Another media thing was Blyskawica radio, it started on August 7 and ran by the military and was renamed to Polish Radion August 9th. It was on the air three to four times a day, with new programs on the Polish

Casualties
  • About 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were kille
  • About 6,000 were badly wounded
  • About 16,000 german soldiers were killed
  • About 9,000 were wounded
  • Between 150,000 and 200,000 civilians died
  • City
  • About 25% of the city was destroyed during combat
  • After the surrender the German troops destroyed 35% of the city
  • By January 1945 over 85% of the city was destroyed
  • 85% of Warsaw is destroyed
    85% of Warsaw is destroyed

United States response to Nazi's

America during World War II tried its best to not enter and join in the war. People are not positive on what the United States knew but people think they could’ve done a bit more than what they did, or didn’t, do. The United States stayed in isolationism from 1920 to 1941. They stayed in their own world while Europe was undergoing horrible things. People think that the U.S. didn’t enter the war because they stuck to being isolationists, but other think that they might have been ignorant, in denial. Or anti-Semitic. They tried to stay in isolation, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor, they stepped out of isolation.

United States response to Warsaw Uprising

Winston Churchill wanted to help the Polish take their land back and tried to persuade Americans to support his efforts in Moscow. But the United States did not want to take part, but the British Prime Minister persuaded Roosevelt to write a joint letter to Stalin asking for consent for airlifts. Their response was very negative. Outraged the Americans sent over 100 B-17 flying fortresses on September 18, 1944 to drop over 1300 containers of weapons,ammunition, other necessities. But it was too late, only 400 containers were recovered by the Polish.


" There was no difficulty in finding Warsaw. It was visible from 100 kilometers away. The city was in flames and with so many huge fires burning, it was almost impossible to pick up the target marker flares."
--- William Fairly, Pilot



Sources

Tebinka, Jachek. "Policy towards the Warsaw Uprising." Editorial. Polish
Resistance . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2010.
<http://www.polishresistance-ak.org/6%20Article.htm>.

Project InPosterum. "World War 2: Warsaw Uprising." Warsaw Uprising 1944. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://www.warsawuprising.com/about.html>


Richard J. Kozicki, Piotr Wróbel (eds), Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966–1945
N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://www.poloniatoday.com>


"Warsaw Uprising of 1944: PART 5 - "THEY ARE BURNING WARSAW” N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2010. <http://www.warsawuprising.com/about.html>